A foundational skill for an architect is the capability to rapidly assess and document "as is" and proposed solution architectures using diagrams. Scoping a diagram according to different needs is the most critical factor to successful visual communication.

This instructional session presents concrete techniques and structured rules of thumb to depict data and information flow both at the enterprise and solution level using the UML. We will walk through a case study in order to illustrate the techniques, and present strategies to map to and from other types of views within Systems Flow's core set of "Investigative Architecture" diagrams, which we presented at previous Open Group conferences.

Ben Sommer is Senior Consultant with Systems Flow, Inc. He currently consults in enterprise architecture at Citizens Bank. He also leads training programs for Systems Flow. His career has spanned network, systems, and open source software engineering with a focus on identity management. Ben is also a trained composer.